Carolina Girls, We're The Best in the World!

I was going to be a Carolina Girl once. I was going to marry a boy from "across the river", probably eventually settle down there and forsake my Georgia heritage, maybe even root for the Gamecocks at football season.

Plans do change and life stepped in and I ended up married to a Georgia boy. I see pine trees instead of palmettos when I look out my back window and I proudly wear the red and black and hope the Dawgs eat chicken for dinner on a certain Saturday every fall.

But one week a year, I embrace my inner Carolina Girl, born in me so long ago. I let her out and let her run free. I travel from the clay hills of Georgia to the sandy shores of my beloved Carolina coast, Edisto Island to be exact. I love it there.

I have been to fancier beaches. I have lived in Hawaii, where it is truly paradise. Seen the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean waters, and the Adriatic Sea. We have family that live near CoCo Beach, FL and every year we travel there - it is beautiful. White sand, blue water - truly spectacular, but none of these beaches feel like home to me quite like Edisto.

For six years, my little family has traveled there for a week of relaxation and pure fun in the sun. We have rented the same house for three of those years, wide open deck, steps away from the ocean tide.

Some of the greatest moments of my life have been at that beach, at that house. When I am sad, needing a place to escape to in my mind, that is where I go. In fact, the picture above this post, the picture in the blog header, was taken on the deck of "my beach house" after a day of shell collecting.

I can close my eyes and hear the surf, taste the air, smell the fish, and see my child scampering across the sand chasing a bird or crab or the waves themselves. I see my husband flying one of the many trick kites he loves so for hours on end and I can hear the drone of all of our parents chattering under the tent on the beach. It is heaven for me, truly heaven.

Today was beautiful. Blue, blue sky and warm, warm sunshine bearing down. My daughter and I donned our summer clothes and headed out to the backyard to enjoy it all. I had washed my hair and decided at the last minute to let my curly locks dry naturally like I am free to do at the beach each year. As Hannah and I sat in our chairs, feet in the playground sand, listening to the radio, she caught the scent of my coconut shampoo and exclaimed "Momma, you smell just like the beach!"

So for just a bit, she and I pretended we were at "our beach." We imagined that the dry, wintertime grass was the blue-green ocean and the birds overhead were really seagulls circling about, waiting on us to throw bread and for just a minute or two the Carolina Girl inside of me came out and danced all over my big Georgia backyard.